RJ Blog

by Rabbi Benjamin J. Zeidman The last time you were in another synagogue, how did you feel? What was it like? Did you know anyone else there? Did anyone say hello? Did you feel that it was a place you belonged, a home away from home? In working with conversion students, I often surprise them when I explain that one need not be a member to attend Shabbat services. All they have to do is walk in. No one will turn them away, and in fact it is likely that they will be greeted with warmth. The anxieties of those [...]

by Chris Haley This is the story of a gentile from a small Southern town who found a spiritual home in Reform Judaism, became Jewish, and assumed a professional leadership role in the Reform Movement in New York City. I grew up in Tennessee in a small town named Shelbyville, located about an hour south of Nashville, where there were virtually no Jews living in or around the immediate area – including me. After graduate school, I moved to Atlanta and took a job as Manager of Grants and Contracts for Atlanta’s Jewish Family & Career Services (JF&CS). The position [...]

by Erika Davis My path to Judaism is similar to most Jews by choice. After years of spiritual searching and longing, I turned toward Judaism because of the tradition, because it is the seed of monotheistic religion, because it’s where I was able to connect to G-d in a real and powerful way. My excitement was met with trepidation: Having grown up Christian with minimal contact with Jews, I wasn’t sure if I’d fit in. I saw only pale faces and felt out of place, unsure how I would be accepted with my brown skin. Doing most of my research [...]

Each month, we at the URJ choose a theme to spotlight on our blog and throughout our other online mediums. All throughout the month of June, we’ll be focusing on the theme Expanding Our Reach, the many ways we welcome and embrace those looking for a home in our congregational communities, including interfaith couples and families, spiritual seekers, LGBT Jews, individuals with special needs, and the disengaged. This also includes, of course, Jews by choice. Because Ruth is widely considered the first Jew by choice, lots of insightful piece about conversion pop up all throughout the weeks leading up to [...]

Just before Shavuot, The New York Jewish Week published a piece from Editor Gary Rosenblatt about “the dangerous fissures in Jewish life today,” namely conversations about who is and is not a Jew. In “Ruth’s Conversion Would Be Rejected Today,” Rosenblatt writes, I can’t help but think that if Ruth lived under the current Chief Rabbinate of Israel, with its increasingly rigid and restrictive interpretation of the laws of conversion, she would not be accepted as a daughter of Israel, and the trajectory of Jewish history would be altogether different.

I knew a woman whose husband was having trouble getting work. He was offered a position quite far from home, but times were tough so they took their two sons and moved. The family did well, the boys grew and married, and life moved forward. Unfortunately, the husband became ill and died. Shortly after that, the sons were involved in a terrible accident in which they perished. And my friend was left a widow, as were her two daughters-in-law. My friend decided to move back to her family’s hometown, where she still had relatives. She had a good relationship with [...]

by Kenneth David Shoji At my Bet Din, one of three Rabbis who interviewed me told me that Judaism has been described as a faith of “Pots and Pans.” She further explained that Judaism was about doing and acting in everyday life, not just having a belief but carrying out actions and practices as part of your identity. Reflecting back on this discussion I am reminded of my mother, who showed me that it is smart to make cleaning up part of the preparation of the meal, taking care of all aspects, the fun and the not so fun, of [...]

by Janine PrestonTemple Or Rishon, Orangevale, CA Anyone who really, really knows me was not surprised to receive the announcement of my conversion to Judaism. When I very seriously told my two best friends from college about my decision last fall, they started to laugh. “Janine,” they said, “you have been talking about this since 1985 — we would only have been surprised if you had decided not to make this official!” I was first introduced to Judaism by a boyfriend back in college. I started studying about this religion that made him so happy, that created a framework for [...]

by Stephanie Seiberg Temple Emanuel, Kensington, MD When I decided to convert I wondered often if I would ever really feel Jewish? I never could have anticipated that the death of my non-Jewish father would be the event that would take me there. I had married a Jewish man several years before my father died. Prior to marriage, we agreed to raise our children Jewish, but at that point I considered myself a non-religious person and had never really considered conversion. Events in my life, including my father’s illness, over the years led me to feel a void with my [...]

This past Shabbat I sat on the bima during Shabbat Service as the Board of Trustees representative.During this service, a young man was being called to the Torah for the first time – he was the bar mitzvah boy. Sitting there, observing the family and friends of this young man, as well as the congregants who had gathered to worship, made me once again realize the beauty of belonging to a Reform shul. Why?Because of the richness of the people who are engaged in creating a Jewish community.  The young man celebrating his bar mitzvah was a mensch. He read [...]

by Deborah BaberTemple Emanuel, New York, NY At the end of October in 1984, I left Birmingham, Alabama after a fabulous, two-month stint working on a bound-for-Broadway musical while staying with my mother who resided there. Mom and I had been estranged for many years. But this visit was a breakthrough! We spent hours together talking, eating, laughing, living… and loving! Two weeks later on November 16, 1984 at 2:30 am I had been asleep for hours. I was a single woman, an actress (a bartender, a hostess, a waitress!), living alone in New York City… and my phone rang. My [...]

by Wendy Grinberg, RJE Alfie Kohn exposes the faulty thinking behind rewards and punishments in this week’s podcast, saying they “are just two sides of the same coin, and that coin doesn’t buy very much.” He tries to convince us what there search shows with adults and children: incentives don’t work. Our goal is for children to self-motivate, derive their own sense of self-worth, and follow their inner guide. The only way they can learn to do that is by trying. In fact, they don’t benefit from our micromanaging and constant bargaining with stickers or time outs. “Unconditional parenting,” as [...]

by Michael DoyleOriginally published on Chicago Carless Four months ago my rabbi said to me, “Unless you’re the greatestfaker ever-and I don’t think you are-how will you know when you’reready?” It was a segue into asking me whether I felt the time was rightto take the next step in my Jewish journey and write my conversionessay-an essay to answer the question, “What does Judaism mean to me andwhy do I want it in my life?” It was three months after beginning that journey, and while in myheart I had an inexplicable sense of knowing the Jewishness at the coreof who [...]

by Rabbi Jordan D. CohenTemple Anshe Sholom, Hamilton,Ontario, Canada The mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim – welcoming the stranger – for a congregational rabbi, can be one of the most satisfying mitzvot of all. When a phone call or e-mail comes in, or a new face walks in the synagogue door, asking about conversion, I know I am going to get to share in a remarkable story. This inquiry may be the first step towards the fulfillment of a life-long spiritual yearning. It may be the reclamation of a lost family heritage. It may bring unification to the mixed identity of [...]